Vintage Lamps and Oversized Frames

One of my favorite blogs I recently discovered is Kelley’s at The Polished Pebble.    If you haven’t visited her blog, I encourage you to do so, this is one talented lady!      She recently did a post on vintage lamps and in her words “re-think, re-use and re-cycle” which is a great philosophy.     When I saw her vintage ice cream lamps, I knew I had to find a vintage ice cream bucket to re-cycle into a lamp.     So yesterday afternoon I stopped at my favorite flea market and after wondering up and down three floors I happened to see a wonderful old bluish-green ice cream bucket!     It was meant to be (for me) with a price tag of $30.     Not bad but I wanted to see if the dealer would take less.    I had the front desk call the dealer (who is a friend of a friend) and I asked her if she’d take $20 and she said yes!     So then I went back to see if I could find a lamp shade and I found one I thought would work for $4.00…..guess it was my lucky day, huh?     

     

     

Now I’ve just got to turn the bucket into a lamp.     I really like the lamp shade “as is” (a creamy linen) but will probably end up covering it in burlap.   

 

Now about the frame story…..

I’ll be going to my son’s in Birmingham in two weeks to stay a few days and start decorating my granddaughter’s bedroom so we can get ready for the arrival of their baby boy in August….his room will be the next one we do.     We have an antique bed that belonged to my late uncle which came out of the Prince Albert Hotel in Selma, Alabama that we are going to paint a creamy white and distress.    We have also “loaned” them a gorgeous armoire in a dark mahogany finish that will also be used in the room.     Jennifer and I have decided to do the room in brown and pink (I’ll share the colors later) and use the Shabby Chic line at Target for bedding.    

I love those oversize photo frames with the little bitty cut out in the center for a photo or image and have several in my home.     But since I was pretty happy with the way my Cottage sign turned out I wanted to see if I could make an oversize frame to use over McKinley’s bed.    I got a 24 x 24 piece of wood at Home Depot and cut out a 5” hole in the center.  

I might try my hand at cutting one out and mitering it together but for my first attempt, I took the easy way out and just cut a hole in the center.

 

Actually, hubby cut out the hole but it was a little rough around the edges so instead of trying to smooth it out, I picked up a little wood frame at the Dollar Tree, painted it to match the frame and then used wood glue to attach it over the center cut out.    

I’ll have to give the whole frame another coat of paint and the appliques may be a little small but it’s what I had on hand and as they say “it is what it is”!

   

  

 

I printed out McKinley’s initials on copy paper and inserted it in the mini-frame to see what it looked like but for the finished one I’ll use some cardstock to print out her initials.

Tomorrow my daughter and granddaughter Taylor  and I are going to Birmingham for granddaughter McKinley’s dance recital.     Then all next week I’ll be preparing for my mom’s 90th(!) birthday party at the lake next Saturday.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Secret Garden

I’d like to tell ya’ll about my friend Betty Jo.      This is the wonderful lady that conducted my mom’s estate sale and what started out as a “business arrangement” has evolved into a friendship.     Once you meet this woman, you just can’t help loving her and her sweet family.      Just recently I found out she is also has a green thumb and when you see her yard, I think you will agree.

Betty Jo lives in a charming historic neighborhood.     Most everyone in this area has lived in their homes 50+ years and take great pride in their homes and yards.    

Betty Jo loves red as reflected in her front door.    Don’t you just love her classic cottage?     She plans on painting her shutters, porch ceiling, porch floor and adding a large lantern overhead.     I can’t wait to see it all!

Here’s the area up near the house.     Instead of me doing a running commentary, please enjoy all these pictures.

 

  

  

Betty Jo and her sister laid this brick pathway all by themselves!

 

 

Can you believe the size of these hostas?!

 

 

   

    

 

 

   

 

    

I fell in love with her yard and I can’t remember ever seeing anything quite like it except maybe in a magazine.      I hope you all enjoyed touring Betty Jo’s secret garden as much as I did.

Sweet Cottage Sign

I’ve been admiring all the hand painted signs featured on many blogs.    They have inspired me to try my hand at painting one for myself.  

I have no talent whatsoever when it comes to handpainting or drawing.     So thanks to the many helpful comments on my last post, I decided the best way for me to transfer my words onto a board was to use graphite paper.

I got an old board out of my mom’s yard left by the estate sale people.    I figured if I messed it up, I wouldn’t be out anything.

So here’s the board in it’s raw stage:

How do ya’ll like my “workroom”?    (I have an old patio table just outside my laundry room and here’s where I do my painting, as you can tell from all the old paint colors on the file cabinet).

 

I had a little “try me” size of paint in “Milk” so that’s what I used to dry brush on the board.     

Before I sanded it, I decided I wanted to cover it a little more so I added another coat of “Milk” and then sanded it back in different areas.

     

I printed out “Guest Cottage” in two different fonts I liked, enlarged it on the computer, then printed it out and taped it together.   

Then I placed each page on my board, inserted the graphite paper underneath and traced over the words with a pencil. 

I filled in the word “Guest” with black craft paint….

…and then after tracing around the letters in “Cottage” with a black magic marker I decided not to paint it out for now.    I kinda like how it looks, what do you think?      I didn’t want to copy the sign I saw on another blog completely, so I left “Cottage” plain.

   

My guest room is getting a mini-makeover soon and I plan to use the “Guest Cottage” sign over the bed.     We are trading out the full size bed for a queen size mattress, I want to use an old mantle as my headboard and put the Guest Cottage sign over the mantle.     The black & cream toile bedding will stay the same and I’m bringing in a 3 corner cabinet for the TV.     Since I’m putting a bigger bed in there, I have to do away with some of the furniture in there but it’s pretty crowded right now so  I don’t mind getting rid of some “stuff”.

I’m making some progress in the never-ending saga of the sun room re-do.    Got one set of panels complete for one window, so now I only have 3 more pairs to do!     Still undecided on a wall color…….!

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day.     We stayed home and didn’t go to the lake because it rained off and on all weekend.     My sister and her husband are coming to see mom this evening and we are all taking her out to dinner.

Have a great week!